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Andrew Brown

Achaeus (2) of Eretria, Atheniantragic poet, to be distinguished from Achaeus of Syracuse, who may be the Achaeus who won a *Lenaean victory c.356. According to the *Suda the Eretrian was ...
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Achaeus (2) of Eretria, Atheniantragic poet, to be distinguished from Achaeus of Syracuse, who may be the Achaeus who won a *Lenaean victory c.356. According to the *Suda the Eretrian was born in 484–480 bce, wrote 44 or 30 or 24 plays, the first produced between 447 and 444, and won one victory. Being unmentioned at Ar. Ran.73–87, he was probably dead by 405. Of 20 known titles at least eight are satyric, and the philosopher *Menedemus (1) (a fellow Eretrian) thought his satyr-plays second only to those of *Aeschylus (Diog. Laert. 2. 133). *Didymus (1) seems to have written a commentary on him. *Euripides is said to have adapted a maxim from him (fr. 6, cf. Eur. fr. 895), and he is quoted three times by *Aristophanes (1) (Vesp.1081, Pax356, Ran.184). *Athenaeus (1) (10. 451c) describes him as polished in style but liable to become obscure and enigmatical.

Andrew Brown

Achilles (Ἀχιλλεύς), son of *Peleus and *Thetis; greatest of the Greek heroes in the Trojan War; central character of *Homer's Iliad.
His name may be of Mycenaean Greek origin, ...
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Achilles (Ἀχιλλεύς), son of *Peleus and *Thetis; greatest of the Greek heroes in the Trojan War; central character of *Homer's Iliad.

His name may be of Mycenaean Greek origin, meaning ‘a grief to the army’. If so, the destructive Wrath of Achilles, which forms the subject of the Iliad, must have been central to his mythical existence from the first.

In Homer he is king of Phthia, or ‘Hellas and Phthia’, in southern Thessaly (see phthiotis), and his people are the Myrmidons. As described at Il. 2. 681–5 the size of his kingdom, and of his contingent in the Trojan expedition (50 ships), is not outstanding. But in terms of martial prowess, which is the measure of excellence for a Homeric hero, Achilles' status as ‘best of the Achaeans’ is unquestioned. We are reminded of his absolute supremacy throughout the poem, even during those long stretches for which he is absent from the battlefield.

Ewen Bowie

(see novel, greek) from *Alexandria (1), author of ‘The Story of Leucippe and Cleitophon’ (Τὰ κατὰ Λευκίππην καì Κλειτοφῶντα) in eight books. Shown by papyri to be circulating by the mid-2nd cent. ...
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(see novel, greek) from *Alexandria (1), author of ‘The Story of Leucippe and Cleitophon’ (Τὰ κατὰ Λευκίππην καì Κλειτοφῶντα) in eight books. Shown by papyri to be circulating by the mid-2nd cent. ce, it probably dates from the preceding decades. Of three other works ascribed to Achilles by the *Suda two are lost (an Etymology and a Miscellaneous History of Many Great and Illustrious Men), and the ascription of that partly preserved, On the Sphere, is debated. The Suda's story that later he became a Christian, and even a bishop, is probably false. Achilles varies patterns common to the genre: the enamoured couple elope and survive shipwreck, attacks by pirates and brigands, and complicated adventures in Egypt; they are eventually re-united in Ephesus after Leucippe has passed a chastity-test (cf. heliodorus (4)). The story is presented as Cleitophon's autobiographic narrative, told to the writer in a temple grove at Sidon (cf.Less

M. B. Trapp

Adrianus (Hadrianus) of Tyre (c. CE 113–93), sophist, pupil of *Herodes Atticus; held the chairs of rhetoric at Athens and Rome. One short *declamation attributed to him survives. See ...
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Adrianus (Hadrianus) of Tyre (c. CE 113–93), sophist, pupil of *Herodes Atticus; held the chairs of rhetoric at Athens and Rome. One short *declamation attributed to him survives. See second sophistic.

Pavlos Avlamis

Originally named Athenais, Eudocia was the daughter of Leontius, a teacher of rhetoric. She was born in Athens (Evagrius Scholasticus Historia ecclesiastica 1.20) and probably followed her father in ...
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Originally named Athenais, Eudocia was the daughter of Leontius, a teacher of rhetoric. She was born in Athens (Evagrius Scholasticus Historia ecclesiastica 1.20) and probably followed her father in his career move to Alexandria, before returning to Athens, where Leontius was elected to the chair of rhetoric in 415ce with the help and intervention of Olympiodorus of Thebes (Olympiodorus fr. 28 FHG). Details of Eudocia’s life are complicated by the novelistic embellishments of the chroniclers (exemplified in Joannes Malalas 272-8 Thurn) and contemporary polemics persisting in later sources,1 but a basic narrative seems secure. Eudocia’s classical education (reported by Malalas 273 Thurn; Phot. Bibl. 183; Tzetz. Chil. 10.48–54) is evident in the nature of her literary output, her use of traditional poetic language, and her classical versification, which reveal formal training despite occasional inconsistencies and non-classical usages. Athenais converted to Christianity and changed her name to Eudocia before her marriage to Theodosius II on 7 June 421.Less

Steven D. Smith

Aelian (Claudius Aelianus, 161/77–230/8 CE), an influential writer of miscellaneous works in Rome during the reign of the Severan emperors, helped shape the literary landscape of the ...
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Aelian (Claudius Aelianus, 161/77–230/8 CE), an influential writer of miscellaneous works in Rome during the reign of the Severan emperors, helped shape the literary landscape of the so-called Second Sophistic. There are two sources for his life, one a contemporary notice by Philostratus in his Lives of the Sophists, and the other a brief entry in the 10th-centurySuda lexicon. According to the former, Aelian ‘was a Roman, but he spoke and wrote Attic Greek’ (VS 624). A student of the sophist Pausanias of Caesarea and an admirer of Herodes Atticus, Aelian himself declined to declaim in public and instead committed himself to writing and composition. He died without any children, and he claimed never to have travelled outside of Italy. The Suda supplies additional information: Aelian was born in Praeneste (modern Palestrina) near Rome and he was a high priest (ἀρχιερεύς), though the Byzantine source is silent about what god Aelian served.

David Whitehead

Aeneas (Aineias) Tacticus, probably the Stymphalian general of the Arcadian koinon (see arcadian league) in 367 bce (Xen. Hell. 7. 3. 1); anyway the earlies (-surviving) and most ...
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Aeneas (Aineias) Tacticus, probably the Stymphalian general of the Arcadian koinon (see arcadian league) in 367 bce (Xen. Hell. 7. 3. 1); anyway the earlies (-surviving) and most historically interesting of the ancient military writers (tactici). Of several treatises only his Siegecraft (Poliorcetica) is extant, internally datable to the mid-4th cent. via the clustering of contemporary illustrations of its precepts (and linguistically important for its embryo form of the koinē). Concerned more with defence against than prosecution of siege-warfare, it offers unique insights into the stresses of life in small communities with warfare and revolution constantly threatening. See siegecraft, greek.